METAIRIE, La. — Remind Michael Thomas that so many teams passed on him, that nearly three years ago five wide receivers went off the NFL draft board ahead of him, and he rolls his eyes with disgust.

“I don’t even know their names,” he grumbles before making another type of catch. “Okay, of course I know who they were. I can’t forget that.”

Thomas, 25, has quickly emerged as one of pro football’s best receivers. But the outlandish stats — he led the NFL this season with his club-record 125 receptions and after breaking a mark in 2017 for most catches by an NFL player in his first two seasons (196), doubled down to set the three-year record (321) — are merely clues attached to a passion that drives the Saints star preparing for an NFC divisional playoff game on Sunday against the Eagles.

The first five receivers drafted in 2016? Corey Coleman, Will Fuller, Josh Doctson, Laquon Treadwell and Sterling Shepard. Granted, none of them have the fortune of being targeted by record-setting sharp-shooter Drew Brees. But four were first-round picks, and they have combined for zero Pro Bowls.

“It is what it is now,” Thomas, a second-round pick, taken 47th overall, told USA TODAY Sports as he sat at his locker recently. “No disrespect to those guys. You control what you can control. I’m the example for the kid taken in this last draft, and there were five guys drafted ahead of him. Deep inside, there should be something burning. That should affect him. That should make him feel uncomfortable. That should make him feel disrespected. Keep a chip on his shoulder for the rest of his career. Something that makes you want to abuse the person in front of you.

“I had to take the situation I was put in and run with it and keep praying to God. Now I’m here, chasing a championship.”

Meet Thomas, “Mikey,” as his famous uncle calls him, a man who seemingly embodies the type of “Mamba Mentality” that former NBA star Kobe Bryant describes in his best-selling book. He is wired with an edge, which at least partially explains why he caught 85 percent of his targets this season — including big ones, such as the game-winning TD against the Steelers in Week 16 that helped secure a No. 1 seed for these playoffs or a 73-yarder that made a difference in beating the Rams in Week 9 — which topped the 72.2 percent clip that Wes Welker had with the Patriots in 2007 as the best by a player with at least 100 targets since ProFootballReference.com began tracking the rate in 1992.

“It’s not like they just put him on an island every game,” Brees told reporters, mindful of double coverages and other schemes.

“He’s got to work hard to get open, and he does.”

Don’t think this a man who was always seemed destined to be here — even with the hands-on push from Michael Thomas, Sr., aka “Big Mike,” who raised him as a single father, or support from Keyshawn Johnson, who exposed his brother’s son to a layer of perspective about big-time sports.

“My dad was real strict when I was growing up,” Thomas said. “He provided the tools when I couldn’t provide them for myself, put me in position to play this game. He put the tools in front of me to enhance my game. Things like that. I understood what he was doing; he was setting me up to be successful, instilling that foundation in me that (says) people can tell you this or that, but if you handle your business, you pretty much control the other stuff.

“He just kind of instilled that in me, a hustler’s mindset — taking risks, being disciplined, being grounded, staying focused.”

This undoubtedly prepared Thomas for one challenge after another. One of his former coaches, Matt Kerstetter, takes you to Thomas’ junior year at Taft Charter in Woodland Hills, Calif. — a chapter in a journey that included a year at Oaks Christian High in Westlake Village, Calif., a year of home-schooling from Big Mike, a year at Fork Union (Va.) Military Academy before landing at Ohio State.

Kerstetter remembers a “skinny” receiver who rode the bench as a junior because he couldn’t beat the press coverage to get off the line of scrimmage. And he said Thomas was unmercifully razzed by teammates, with one of the (maybe envious) themes linked to his frequent references to “Uncle Key.”

“That chip on his shoulder is absolutely 100% earned,” Kerstetter, now offensive coordinator at Houston Westfield, told USA TODAY. “He’s had to prove everything he’s had. It’s why he is where he is now. And that chip has turned into a boulder.”

Kerstetter maintains that like now, Thomas had sure hands, good body control and a high football IQ in high school, too.

But back then, could he envision Thomas blossoming like this?

“Hell no,” Kerstetter said. “Anybody who told you they did is lying.”

Johnson, though, chuckled when asked about the significance of Mikey being named first-team all-pro last week.

He struck out with Lane Kiffin, who then coached at his alma mater, USC. Same with Steve Sarkisian, then at Washington, and with one of his former Tampa Bay teammates, Scott Frost, then an assistant at Oregon.

“They all gave me every excuse in the book. Urban Meyer was the only one. It’s why he’s been successful, and they’re not. They look foolish now.”

Thomas grew up in the Southern California home that Johnson provided for his family. While he acknowledged that his experience, with suburban schools and access to essential resources, contrasted to that of his uncle — whose journey included rising from homelessness to becoming the first pick overall in the 1996 NFL draft — he acknowledges the connection and the influence on his substance.

“Our family came from the struggle and a hard background,” Thomas said. “I know where my family comes from, the sacrifices they made for me to be in this position. That’s the type of stuff where we get our fire from, our nature, because we came from the struggle.”

Johnson, whose 11-year NFL career included winning a Super Bowl ring with the Bucs, is careful not to characterize his impact in any manner that takes away from Thomas’ dedication. “It’s his time to shine,” Johnson said. “I had my day.”

Yet if you’re Uncle Key (who now co-owns a sports agency with Big Mike), how can you not help but brim with pride over what Mikey — the kid he used to watch from the sidelines in high school, who he coached on a 7-on-7 team — has become.

“One time, he was out there running lazy routes, and I’m screaming and yelling,” Johnson recalled from Thomas’ senior year. “And he had the nerve to wave me off, like, ‘Man, shut up!’ At that point, he thought he had already made it.”

Then there was the time when Thomas played for the seven-on-seven team coached by Johnson and his former Bucs teammate, Brian Kelly. Think “hard coaching” as Johnson ran the offense.

“For me, it was fun,” Johnson said. “For him, not so much. I chewed his ass.”

Fast-forward to the present, with Thomas’ reputation in Saints circles as a workaholic — which makes him a perfect match for Brees and maniacal coach Sean Payton. He declares that professionalism is “the safest way to the top,” which sounds like something Jerry Rice would say back in the day.

Says Johnson: “He’s never going to get full of himself, to where he’s not working. He’s not a narcissist. Not what people call a ‘diva receiver.’ “

That’s part of what Johnson remembers telling Payton in 2016, when the Saints coach made the trek to Bristol, Conn., to appear on ESPN’s coverage of the NFL playoffs that included Johnson — he once played under Payton with the Cowboys — as a studio analyst.

Payton said that Thomas was already on the Saints’ radar at that point, along with Pitt’s Tyler Boyd, as the two receivers they desired.

“The one thing that stood out with Mike was how physical he was,” Payton recalled to USA TODAY Sports. “We saw a toughness to how he played. And then as you did more research, you got drawn to his trait of passion.”

Payton added that he told Johnson, “You let him know that we like him.”

Johnson’s recollection of their exchange: “He’s the best receiver in the draft. I don’t care about no 40 time. He’s a bigger, faster, better Marques Colston.”

Sure enough, Thomas has been attacking one Saints record after another set by Colston. But his business, which includes chasing Super Bowl glory, is unfinished.

“I don’t want to come this far (just) to come this far,” he said. “There’s always going to be a sense of urgency.”

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